Passing It On

Last month I had the unique opportunity to visit Stillwater Junior High School to "pass on" some of my key insights and stories about living in India and being an expat. My good friend, Bob Manning--a fantastic teacher, global consultant, and visionary--had arranged for these presentations to his ninth grade Geography classes as a follow-up to a series of video Skype calls from India with the same students last Fall.

My presentation, Incredible India!, highlighted my reason for moving to India and the different stories, people, and traveling destinations I experienced during my 12 months there. The presentation is similar to the one I give at Target, but customized for the minds of ninth grade students. I loved showing some pictures, telling my many stories and sharing the differences and similarities of the Indian culture--reminding the students that even though we may look and sound differently on the outside, people are generally the same on the inside--warm, friendly and willing to teach you about their culture.

I encouraged the kids to travel, learn more about the world, and focus on our differences as strengths. The world is an amazing laboratory of learning just waiting to be experienced! My hope is that I could replace a fear of the world with a curiosity of it. The students seemed to enjoy the presentations and even made comments on my Michael's India blog. I even ended up in the Country Messenger regional newspaper and was touted as a "World Traveler"--how exciting! I felt so honored to be featured in their publication.

I know that I had received the many benefits of living and traveling abroad, so it's always nice to have the opportunity to pass it on. Thank you, Bob, for allowing me to do that!

Onward,

The Ambassador of Goodwill